Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 21, 1896 - Miscellanies, Volume IV

PHILOSOPHY OF NOMENCLATURE
the dead sailor in his shotted hammock, haled down
by sheer weight of name into the abysses of social
failure. Solomon possibly had his eye on some such
theory when he said that ' a good name is better
than precious ointment ' ; and perhaps we may trace
a similar spirit in the compilers of the English
Catechism, and the affectionate interest with which
they linger round the catechumen's name at the
very threshold of their work. But, be these as they
may, I think no one can censure me for appending,
in pursuance of the expressed wish of his son, the
Turkey merchant's name to his system, and pro-
nouncing, without further preface, a short epitome
of the Shandean Philosophy of Nomenclature.
To begin, then : the influence of our name makes
itself felt from the very cradle. As a schoolboy I
remember the pride with which I hailed Robin
Hood, Robert Bruce, and Robert le Diable as my
name-fellows ; and the feeling of sore disappoint-
ment that fell on my heart when I found a free-
booter or a general who did not share with me a
single one of my numerous prcenomina. Look at
the delight with which two children find they have
the same name. They are friends from that moment
forth ; they have a bond of union stronger than
exchange of nuts and sweetmeats. This feeling, I
own, wears off in later life. Our names lose their
freshness and interest, become trite and indifferent.
But this, dear reader, is merely one of the sad effects
of those ' shades of the prison-house ' which come
gradually betwixt us and nature with advancing
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